Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Andy Freude]

I've just read a BBC news story about His Royal Nibs visiting Israel, and possibly being taken to see the grave of his grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, in the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Jerusalem. "She was honoured by the Jewish people for hiding and saving the lives of Jews in Nazi-occupied Athens, Greece, during World War Two." Am I being oversensitive in resenting the phrase "Athens, Greece"? 'The Greek capital, Athens' might have passed unnoticed.

As a sixth-former, I remember being told about Victor Hugo's notebooks which he entitled, 'Choses vues'. "Things seen", we were told helpfully, which got a slow handclap from a class studying French for A-level. Similarly, to be told about the notebooks "'Things Seen' - Choses Vues'" avoids being patronising while still catering for the inattentive who needed the title to be translated for them.

[vinteuil]

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... some people might be grateful for the clarification -

Athens, Ontario
Athens, Alabama
Athens, Arkansas
Athens, California
Athens, Georgia
Athens, Illinois
Athens, Indiana
Athens, Kentucky
Athens, Louisiana
Athens, Maine
Athens, Michigan
Athens, Mississippi
Athens, Missouri
Athens, Nevada
Athens, New York
Athens (village), New York
Athens, Ohio
Athens County, Ohio
Athens, Pennsylvania, a borough
Athens, Tennessee
Athens, Texas
Athens, Vermont
Athens, West Virginia
Athens, Wisconsin

... and yes, I know the Nazis never occupied Canada or the US


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[Serial_Apologist]

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... some people might be grateful for the clarification -

Athens, Ontario
Athens, Alabama
Athens, Arkansas
Athens, California
Athens, Georgia
Athens, Illinois
Athens, Indiana
Athens, Kentucky
Athens, Louisiana
Athens, Maine
Athens, Michigan
Athens, Mississippi
Athens, Missouri
Athens, Nevada
Athens, New York
Athens (village), New York
Athens, Ohio
Athens County, Ohio
Athens, Pennsylvania, a borough
Athens, Tennessee
Athens, Texas
Athens, Vermont
Athens, West Virginia
Athens, Wisconsin

... and yes, I know the Nazis never occupied Canada or the US


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They might have been sixth columnists - but I'd expect you to be Parthenon that one

[Andy Freude]

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... some people might be grateful for the clarification -

Touché. I'm sure you're right

Though 'The Greek capital, Athens' might have been good enough.

[vinteuil]

"She was honoured by the Jewish people for hiding and saving the lives of Jews in Nazi-occupied Athens, Greece, during World War Two." Am I being oversensitive in resenting the phrase "Athens, Greece"? 'The Greek capital, Athens' might have passed unnoticed.

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... my over-sensitive hackles were raised by 'World War Two'. When did it cease being 'the Second World War'?

Anyone who shouts out "1945", detention and two hundred lines of the Æneid bk ix


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[Bax-of-Delights]

Well, well, well. I’ve just noticed that this thread is still going strong after I began it back in 2012!

When I pass beyond this mortal coil ☠️ I shall rest easy in the knowledge that Radio 3 forum readers will still be responding to my starting gun from all those years ago.

While I’m here I can add to the pantheon of disagreeable words and phrases the following:

Any presenter who feels the need to describe a Bruckner symphony as “mighty”.

Yes, EA, I’m looking at you.

[vinteuil]

Yes, EA, I’m looking at you.

... I'm sure Eine Alpensinfonie is not guilty!

(My personal battle against un-introduced abbreviations will continue until my dying day... )


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[LHC]

... my over-sensitive hackles were raised by 'World War Two'. When did it cease being 'the Second World War'?

Anyone who shouts out "1945", detention and two hundred lines of the Æneid bk ix


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Although 1945 is generally accepted as the end of the Second World War, the Peace Treaty with Japan wasn’t signed until 1951, and some outstanding issues with Germany weren’t resolved until the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.

[Bryn]

... my over-sensitive hackles were raised by 'World War Two'. When did it cease being 'the Second World War'?

Anyone who shouts out "1945", detention and two hundred lines of the Æneid bk ix


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I'll opt for WWII, but only because I like their piano duet playing.

[vinteuil]

I'll opt for WWII, but only because I like their piano duet playing.

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... not this one, though?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnYgCpxKbGY

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[StephenMcK]

Forgive me if the question has already been asked ... but at what point post September '39 was the war classed or named (a) as a conflict of 'world' dimensions and (b) who then proposed the concept or descriptors of World War I & II which then effectively retired the title of 'The Great War'.

[zola]

Although 1945 is generally accepted as the end of the Second World War, the Peace Treaty with Japan wasn’t signed until 1951, and some outstanding issues with Germany weren’t resolved until the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Japan and Russia have still to conclude a final peace treaty due to outstanding disputes over some northern islands.

[vinteuil]

Forgive me if the question has already been asked ... but at what point post September '39 was the war classed or named (a) as a conflict of 'world' dimensions and (b) who then proposed the concept or descriptors of World War I & II which then effectively retired the title of 'The Great War'.

... interesting questions, to which I have no answer, except what follows.

I recall from Geoffrey Madan's Notebooks his distress at the title of Repington's First World War, published in 1919, presupposing as it did that there would be another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_%C3%A0_Court_Repington

EDIT - ... and I see that wiki has : "The term "world war" was first used in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who claimed that "there is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word," citing a wire service report in The Indianapolis Star on 20 September 1914."



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[gurnemanz]

Forgive me if the question has already been asked ... but at what point post September '39 was the war classed or named (a) as a conflict of 'world' dimensions and (b) who then proposed the concept or descriptors of World War I & II which then effectively retired the title of 'The Great War'.

And in Russia a different perspective applies with the wars being named: The Patriotic War of 1812. The Second Patriotic War of 1914. The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

[LezLee]

Of course, to those of us of a certain age, it's usually just 'The War'.